Changing habits

It has become habitual for me to take a bath at least twice a day. One in the morning before I go to school and another right after school. Taking a shower helps me relax and prepares my body for school work.

In taking a bath, the usual rituals are expected: the lathering of soap on the skin, the brushing of teeth and the shampooing of the hair. One of these bath conventions I violated and that is the shampooing of the hair.

Back when I was in high school, I hate it when my hair is fluffy and smooth because the application of hair gel and hair wax becomes more difficult in the sense that the hair just won't settle. It happened to me that I overused the hair gel and it felt uncomfortable and sticky during the entire day. What I did is to stop applying shampoo on my hair. It solved the fluffiness but I am faced with the problems of odor and stickiness. Only then that shampooing the hair once even if you take a bath twice helps. I can get to wax my hair easily without the bother of odor and stickiness.

Sometimes, I don't apply wax anymore. Like today, my hair has become rather longer so it settles better.

Hair.

maybe I should get a hair cut.

Pepeng and the Evening News

My eyes were set on evening news because of the anticipated Pepeng storm when I heard the News Anchor comment on a news report about the mass wake of the poverty-stricken victims of the typhoon Ondoy.

The news anchor said "Kawawa..."

I find it off that this news anchor would comment that way. It is like adding insult to injury. I do think that some of the victim's situations are nakakaawa but to magnify that on air is a stab to their collective dignity.

I think news anchors and all media personnel should inhibit sharing their affections and/or opinions on air. They should only deliver the news as it is. They should feed the information-thirsty people the what, when, how, why, who.

Opinions should be aired on some other program and not a news program. That is why I think newspapers are better. Facts are on a seperate sheet as opinions.

Only news and no shit please.

Pepeng and our neighborhood

I hope Pepeng would veer away from NCR and spare Manila. This afternoon, it rained and it reminded every commuter the damages that Ondoy have left.

Traffic again.

Manila, on the 3rd day of Ondoy Aftermath

This morning, the shining sun woke me up. Now this is significant compared to the days of gloomy mornings which I grew accustomed to for the past weekend. The storm had finally tempered, or so I think it did.

I was primed to fix all my undone schoolwork. I knew that the class suspension bought me more time to study. After so much thought, I decided to send the letter needed for a requirement in our Comm 3 subject. Jeepneys seemed to be abounding the streets again so I thought there'll be no transport problems.

I instinctively brought my digital camera with me. I don't usually bring my camera in fear of getting it lost. I was to travel the length of Welcome Rotonda to the street of Padre Faura. UST, Quiapo and Taft in between. The jeepney didn't pass by Recto. I'll soon learn why. It crossed Sta. Cruz and to my surprise, the area is still flooded!

The image on the left is the actual photo taken earlier this afternoon. Flood here could have been worse considering that the storm wrought havoc last Saturday.

It took me an hour to get to my destination. I passed by UPM to check if CAS and the white colleges are still intact.

After getting my business done, I went home. Again, jeepneys are dominating the Taft Avenue so I thought that the Sta. Cruz waterworks is an isolated case. But is it?

From Lawton, I could see that cars and public vehicles are jamming again. Then we passed by Quiapo then Recto. Only at this time did I learn why the jeepney driver needed to cut Recto and went inside Sta. Cruz instead.

Recto was transformed into an Olympic size swimming pool!

Shown in the left is the MMDA efforts of sucking the water out from the Recto underpass. I remember passing by that underpass every single school day of college and I never thought it could be made nonfunctional.

The jeepney driver I had earlier had a companion to whom he is having quite a good chat with. His friend is quite old, judging from the surface of his skin and the color of his hair. I overheard him saying that in his lifetime, Ondoy must have been the worst storm that wrought havoc in Manila.

Click HERE for more images

Green Nobility

Day 5, OHPC

Last Friday is my 5th day of my One Hundred Pesos Challenge. All along, I thought I had a good week to start with but, unfortunately, I didn't. There is a good reason for losing though.

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Record

Temptation Prevailed . . . . . . . . . 1
Determination Triumphed . . . . . 4

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As what my record says, I only spent more than a hundred pesos last Friday. I had a winning streak for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was exceptional because I was at school at around 7am and went home at 11pm. I know I will get myself into these situations soon but heck! This is just the beginning of the challenge!

Green Nobility

On the same day, probably the very reason why I had to stay in school for 16 hours, a special meeting has been called in UP One-Earth. UPOE is one of the organizations that I am involved in. The meeting is qualified as special because we have guests from Dakila. In their site, they defined themselves as

...a group of artists, students and individuals committed to advocating social consciousness formation among both their industry peers and their immediate audiences. DAKILA recognizes that Philippine society is in the midst of a significant upheaval and that, as disciples of the creative act, we are not exempted from the responsibility of helping contribute to positive change.

The reason for their visit is to request UPOE's partnership in touring environmental causes inside our campus in line with the biggest environmental concert that will simultaneously occur in over 70 nations across the globe in anticipation of the make or break UNEP summit in Copenhagen.

My orgmates are excited about their offer. Of course we love to partner with all the organizations we can to usher a cause for the environment. We'll wait and see how things will eventually turn out.

To know more about Dakila, click here.

On Disturbing One's Self

Just a few minutes ago, I listed all the school work I have to accomplish for the long weekend ahead. I don't know if it's just me but I have this propensity to make a list of things longer. Perhaps, school work is so numerous that I feel unmoved by the tasks ahead.

But sometimes, no matter how much you tell yourself that you are going to get things done, you end up goofing off and unable to accomplish anything. The root of this problem may probably be the lack of concentration or focus.

Any simple distraction can prevent you from doing your work well. Sometimes it's a headache, sometimes a flying cockroach, the sound of UAAP basketball on the TV, hunger pangs, brown-out. Just about anything and everything.

The only secret to remain focus is to sustain interest in what you do. Interests drives you with excellence effortlessly. When you are deeply interested with your work, it will no longer be work but a play.

I may be speaking from my experience but I know there are a couple of people out there who experiences the same thing.

Now, I have to find interest in studying because I need something to drive me.

Now I know why the dark ages...

This morning, I had a class on Communication III under Prof Adeva. We were tackling Self-concept then and it was mentioned that adapting to the changes in the environment could improve the concept of the self. She then set a conversation about when is the idea true. A special example was drawn from students from a Catholic high school who experienced the diversity of religion in UP.

A number of students who were from Catholic schools shared their insights about it and I didn't want to be left out. So raise goes my hand and on cue, my prof acknowledge my willingness to recite.

I shared my first experience with Christians.

During my first few weeks in college, I had this innate desire to belong in a religious group. I just had to because I'm fresh from a Catholic high school. Perhaps with some conceitedness, I didn't expect that I will encounter any other religion beyond Catholic. Back then, I was rather very eager to answer any questions that questions the set of faith to which I subscribe. I was eager to debate. Somewhat proud as if I'm a crusader for God's kingdom.

Then the opportunity to belong to a religious org came. I didn't inquire much, perhaps I had my own expectations of what a religious is like and so I went for it. It wasn't an initiation to the org though, just what seems like a general assembly. I have to say, the people there seem approachable, they seem to be good-natured and would cause no harm. Anybody in their company will feel delighted. But something about the groups makes me feel uneasy and just to make it clear, perhaps it wasn't because of them, it was because of my catholic orientation. The org is oriented for christians.

I had to say that I was caught by surprise when I learned that it was a christian org. Again, I wish to emphasize that these thoughts came from within. I felt like I was bordering towards enemy territory then. It felt like I'm betraying the religion I'm subscribing to for 15 years.

A friend of mine had, perhaps, noticed this religious conceit that I have. He notices whenever I describe other religions irrevelently. It has seaped in to my unconscious that my religion is the correct religion and others are bullshit.

Now, I think I underwent conversion but not in the Catholic sense.

UP environment has taught me how to belong in a community of diverse beliefs. I know a number of atheists in the campus. I learned to be sensitive towards other religion but some of my unconscious conceitedness are still making themselves manifest. I'm no longer surprised much if I have a seatmate whose face is covered in cloth or a classmate who is always in a long skirt every single day. I sometimes understand why the prof has disapproving remarks about the theory of evolution eventhough he/she is a Biology teacher.

Perhaps after adjusting to the new environment, then I had peace inside.

Please don't mistake this blog entry as hating my religion. All religions are filled with imperfections from my view. Mine is no exception.

With that, please enjoy this mind-blowing music video from Green Day!